THE IMPORTANT PARTS OF GOVERNANCE

Governance is made up of many different, but equally important elements. These all need to work well together if your nation, group, community or organisations are going to be effective.

Culture is at the heart of every society’s governance arrangements and this is also true for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

For Indigenous governance to be effective it is not enough to simply cherry pick and import foreign governance structures and processes into communities, and expect those communities to function effectively within those arrangements.

To be meaningful to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the component parts of governance must reflect important relationships, networks, values and ways of behaving.

The challenge is to craft arrangements that incorporate both the Indigenous requirement for cultural legitimacy, as well as meeting the governance requirements of the wider non-Indigenous society.

 

THE IMPORTANT PARTS OF GOVERNANCE

These all need to work well together if a group or organisation are going to be effective.

 

Your people
(who does it)

·       community

·       members

·       nation

·       families

·       leaders

·       managers

·       staff

Your processes
(how you do it)

·       rules

·       laws

·       powers

·       procedures

·       roles and responsibilities

Your strategies
(what you do)

·       plans

·       goals

·       milestones

·       programs

·       functions

Your resources
(what you need)

·       infrastructure

·       technology

·       funding

·       capital (cultural, social, economic)

·       natural assets

Your culture
(the way you do things)

·       values

·       worldview

·       traditions

·       behaviour

Your wider environment
(outside influences)

·       networks

·       other groups

·       other communities, government

·       organisations

·       institutions